Comic-Con 2013: 20th Century Fox Panel
Although Fox never listed what was going to be covered during their Comic-Con panel this year, I knew I had to be there because I was pretty sure that The Wolverine would be included and I had a sneaky suspicion that we might get to see some X-Men: Days of Future Past footage. I was right on both counts, but there was still some big surprises in store. It was a panel that included a funny pickup line, the concept of a Wolverine Broadway musical, and some absolutely amazing footage that I was happy to see twice.
The Fox panel included the following presentations:
Dawn of The Planet of the Apes – Director Matt Reeves came out and let us know how much he loved the original films and how he identified with the apes. The film’s cast were also there and included Jason Clarke, Keri Russell, and Andy Serkis who also gave some brief comments on their involvement in the movie. Russell mentioned that she wanted to be a part of it because of her previous experience of working with Reeves, while Serkis talked about how Caesar has changed since the last movie now that he has a family and he’s been the leader of the apes for awhile.
Then they introduced a short teaser for the film which looked good even though it was pretty short. I haven’t seen the most recent remake, but I have seen the entire original film series so I had a pretty good idea of what was going on anyway. It appears that this film takes place a couple of years after the last one and the humans have spent their time fighting the apes and each other during that time. Jason Clarke is the leader of the human resistance and during the clip he ventures into the forest to talk to Caesar which looks like a bad idea because the apes look pissed!
The Wolverine – Director James Mangold came out to talk about The Wolverine and how it he wanted it to focus on Logan in a more personal way than the previous movies. He then introduced Hugh Jackman who came out to talk about playing Logan for the sixth time and how thankful he is for the role. He also let the fans know how grateful he was for their support. As he said, “One of the great joys of working in this industry is coming here and saying thank you to you guys for allowing us to keep doing this.”
Jackman also mentioned that in this movie, we will finally get to see Wolverine finally go into a full berserker rage which he hasn’t done before. Mangold also mentioned other new changes that include a new look for Logan that involves a new and more restrained hairstyle and the claws are now sharp on both sides to make them even more dangerous as they can now cut two ways. With a seventh outing in the works, Jackman said that Wolverine is “the greatest role out there,” and that he has no intention of giving it up.
X-Men: Days Of Future Past – After their talk about The Wolverine ended, Jackman then said he wanted to introduce the director of his next indie movie and brought out original X-Men director Bryan Singer to talk about X-Men: Days of Future Past which will unite the cast of the original movies with the earlier incarnations of the characters from X-Men: First Class. Then we got see a quick look at the movie which looks amazing. In it, we see Professor X and Magneto trying to convince Wolverine to go back into time to stop the mutant war before it begins. The preview ended with Professor X facing his younger self and telling him “Please … we need you to hope again.”
As if that wasn’t awesome enough, the entire freaking cast showed up! Jennifer Lawrence, Nicholas Hoult, Anna Paquin, Ellen Page, Peter Dinklage, Michael Fassbender, Halle Berry, James McAvoy, Evan Peters, Ian McKellen, Patrick Stewart, Shawn Ashmore, Omar Sy, writer Simon Kinberg, and producer Lauren Schuler-Donner joined Jackman and Singer at the table. All of them seemed very enthusiastic about the movie and it was fun hearing which other Marvel character they’d like to be other than the one they have now (Jackman said Deadpool).
With the combined casts from both sets of X-Men movies, this was an incredible panel and the cast showed up to have some fun. When asked if he would ever sing as Wolverine, Jackman demurred until his fellow castmates starting beating on the table for him to sing to and he gamely obliged the crowd by singing “I’m going to slice ‘em, I’m going to dice ‘em.” Stewart talked about how lucky he felt being a part of two hugely successful ensemble cast with Star Trek and X-Men, while McKellen took an opportunity to praise the recent decision to abolish Prop. 8 that prohibited same sex marriage by saying, “I feel safe here now that you got rid of Prop. 8,” before continuing with “I’m looking for a husband,” before glancing down the table to Michael Fassbender. “It’s great to meet you, Michael.” Hall H just exploded with laughter as Fassbender grinned and blushed.
McKellen also talked about his friendship with Stewart (which was very touching as they hugged each other) and went on to talk about their upcoming two plays that they are doing together on Broadway. Anna Paquin seemed a little off like she was uncomfortable being there or perhaps because she didn’t want to be there. Halle Berry on the other hand said while she likes being the earth mother to the X-Men, she’s said that Storm never gets any love and wondered if Storm was asexual. Bryan Singer mentioned that due to the fact that part of the film takes place in the seventies, the terrible fashion of the time is on display and that Peter Dinklage’s character Bolivar Trask (which was finally confirmed in this panel), looks like his father to which Dinklage replied, “That handsome? I’ve got a sweet Tom Selleck mustache I’m sporting.” This was a great panel and I think Hugh Jackman summed it up the best when he said, “This is two great movies in one. The fact I’m with everybody here is something I’ll never forget.”
Here’s some more pictures from the panel:
And last but not least, here is the video of the complete panel if you’d like to experience it yourself and two new cool character posters that have just been released for the movie:
Nice!
Thanks Aaron!